Springs and shocks or coilovers?

[kellynovaaaa]

As title says, what would people recommend? bearing in mind my budget is limited to about £200-£250 lol

[Stuart]

for that cash, NOT coilovers.

[Danny mul]

Ive always went for a good set of gas shocks and springs over coilies

[Hobbit]

Prefer springs and shocks myself, always found coilovers too harsh.

[Spudly]

Ive got FK blues on the front of my nova and i want to rid them in favour of a decent set of dampers and shorter springs, they will do for now but i prefer solid shocks and springs!

Plus aswell on your budget you wont find any decent coilovers so will end up with setup and handling problems that you get from cheap coileys!

[turbojolt]

they all lie you can get a 2nd hand set f spax rsx coilovers with in your budget, ive seen avo ones sell around your budget aswell

[Stuart]

they all lie you can get a 2nd hand set f spax rsx coilovers with in your budget, ive seen avo ones sell around your budget aswell

I'd rather run scaffold pole than either of those options,

[Benn]

Ive got FK blues on the front of my nova and i want to rid them in favour of a decent set of dampers and shorter springs, they will do for now but i prefer solid shocks and springs!

Plus aswell on your budget you wont find any decent coilovers so will end up with setup and handling problems that you get from cheap coileys!

Don't judge all Coilovers on Cheap FK shi*e.

Spend them money and do it right, then you wont e doing it over and over..

I've tried about 8different sets up. Now spunked the money and did it right and i wouldn't ever go back.

[Spudly]

Dont get me wrong im not saying theyre cmpletely crap, but to get a decent rideheight ive had to ditch the helpers which has had an effect on the handling, plus if the hub comes off for any reason you have to piss about with lining the top slot back up so you dont run scene camber and such lol

The blue ones are far better than the yellow ones, but for what i use the car for ive no need for decent coilovers that cost a million billion internet squids lol

[blue_peg_16v]

I run koni dampers and custom springs on the loon and have bought some more konis for the van personally think coil overs are overkill on a road car if the car is being used regularly on track then a good set of coilovers makes scence but I've never had a problem with springs and dampers on the road

[Iain]

Removing a helper spring shouldn't affect the handling?!

For 250 a spring and shock setup tbh

[nova_stee]

I have spax rsx on the let with 350lb springs and its the best suspension set up ive had on a nova

[Benn]

Dont get me wrong im not saying theyre cmpletely crap, but to get a decent rideheight ive had to ditch the helpers which has had an effect on the handling, plus if the hub comes off for any reason you have to piss about with lining the top slot back up so you dont run scene camber and such lol
l

As IaIn said, removing the helper spring should affect the handling at all. The camber hole can be a pain yes.

[Spudly]

Seems to be more bouncy on back roads than it 'should' be, why is it only my comments that are being picked up on here btw lol

[Iain]

Cos you're wrong :p

[Jack]

As said, you can get second hand Spax RSX for that money. You'd be better off spending it on better quality shocks and springs though IMO.

I have RSX coilovers on mine, but when it had the 2.0 it was fine on Koni adjustable shock/spring setup. Only changed as the V6 put them on the floor lol

[kellynovaaaa]

thanks for the feedback guys, think i'm going to go with springs and shocks as they seem to be more suitable for my price range and i'll get better quality for my money. what company/makes would you recommend?

[Hobbit]

Got Bilstein on mine and they work a treat.

[chrisd1986]

Ive got koni adjustables that i bought second hand for my saloon and it hanles like its on rails even in the wet and i only give £90 for them

[Spudly]

Cos you're wrong :p




How can i be wrong about my own setup you cabbage, its mine, i dont like how it is, and so im going to change it :p


The op asked for advice and experiences, ive offered mine, ive had loads of fixed spring and damper setups before (and with the exception of standard of course) i much prefer them to what i have!

[Stuart]

tbh you could set them up properly :p

[Edd]

In my experience coilovers are crap, too harsh, and your constantly fiddling with them to get them right, then it suddenly dawns on you that they will never be right

Yellow Bilsteins all day every day, job done, lovely handling, no need to buy anything else again

[Stuart]

Again, just setting them up right once is enough.... but most people never bother to do it right and assume massively harsh damping is the way to make a car 'stiff' lol

Agreed on the yellow Bilstein thing though, they are almost unbeatable.

[BRoadGhost]

If it were me I'ud buy some weld on conversion tubes on some uprated dampers with some eccentric ally top mounts.

[turbojolt]

are the yellow blistens the big piston ones :confused:

[Edd]

are the yellow blistens the big piston ones :confused:

Yep

[Benn]

If it were me I'ud buy some weld on conversion tubes on some uprated dampers with some eccentric ally top mounts.

Is that what you did?

[chrisd1986]

In my experience coilovers are crap, too harsh, and your constantly fiddling with them to get them right, then it suddenly dawns on you that they will never be right

Yellow Bilsteins all day every day, job done, lovely handling, no need to buy anything else again

I had this experiance with my coilovers and wont get them again as i had to adjust the height on different corners atleast once a month i would recomend koni adjustable shocks with ebach springs all day long

[Stuart]

I had this experiance with my coilovers and wont get them again as i had to adjust the height on different corners atleast once a month i would recomend koni adjustable shocks with ebach springs all day long

Sounds like they werent setup right and the locking rings or grub screws werent set right...

This is just like the Carbs and the old wives tales about how poor they are. If setup properly once they are spot on forever.

[chrisd1986]

If i could of got the lockrings any tighter i would have plus i made a note of my measurements and each time i adjusted and they were always tbe same when i re measured them. It was like they kept settleing in

[MK999]

Again, just setting them up right once is enough.... but most people never bother to do it right and assume massively harsh damping is the way to make a car 'stiff' lol

Agreed on the yellow Bilstein thing though, they are almost unbeatable.

I thought the +/- on the top of dampers was to set how fast you wanna go round corners? :confused: Treacle dampers are the way forwards!

'big' dampers always seem to perform well, when I was racing RC stuff a couple of manufacturers started making huge bore/stroke dampers and rinsing the competition until everyone followed suit.

I'd love to put a set of FK coilovers or something on a 4 poster and see a) what kind of random values each corner has and b) How massively far out the zeta values are overall lol

[Spudly]

tbh you could set them up properly :p




The only thing you can do to set them up, is to adjust where the top bolt is in the hole, adjusting the camber, nothing else!

[Benn]

Right poundage springs?

[Danny mul]

Ive Spax adjustables and cant fault them but Bilsteins will eventually be going on
I bought them second had so can be got within your budget

[blue_peg_16v]

To have coilovers properly set up would probably cost the same as his budget for a full geometry set up anyway

[Hobbit]

To have coilovers properly set up would probably cost the same as his budget for a full geometry set up anyway

Her ;)